The Challenge
by Theoretical-Optimist
Summary: Professor Slughorn issues a challenge to his sixth year N.E.W.T level students and switches places with Severus Snape for the day. Written for Round 1 of THC (year three)


House: Gryffindor

Position: HoH

Category: Additional (Must be written in 1st Person POV)

Prompt: Teachers and students switching roles for a day

Word Count: 1492

Beta: Shibalyfe

* * *

I flipped through my copy of _Advanced Potion- Making_ and scoffed at the inferior methods for producing the Draught of Living Death. I had decided in the first week of term that the author had been pathetically inept at making potions. Two months in and it was now bordering on painful to restrain myself to merely making corrections in the margins rather than lighting the text on fire.

I scribbled in a note to crush rather than cut the sopophorous beans even though someone would have to have the intelligence of a mountain troll to not realize that.

"Mr. Snape," Professor Slughorn called my attention to the front of the class. "Why did you just crush your beans?"

Clearing my throat, I explained, "Crushing the beans is a much more efficient way to extract all of the juice. As the beans are one of the active ingredients in this potion, it is essential to maximize their effect."

"That is an interesting theory, Mr. Snape. Ten points to Slytherin for your initiative."

I felt the corner of my mouth upturn at the praise.

From the back of the class, I heard Sirius Black fake a cough to poorly conceal, "suck up."

My semi-permanent scowl returned.

"Due to Mr. Snape's excellent reasoning behind the treatment of sopophorous beans, I have decided to have him teach the rest of this lesson."

' _Lazy sod_ ,' I thought.

"And to make this more exciting, I'll join the class as a student. We'll have a little competition to see who can produce the best Draught of Living Death. If any student succeeds in producing a better potion and thereby beating me, I'll treat them to a butterbeer during the next Hogsmeade visit."

Glancing around the room, I could tell that none of my peers were at all enthused about the prospect of having Slughorn accompany them to Hogsmeade. Yet their overall competitive nature made the challenge intriguing.

"What about Severus?" Lily asked.

I had to work hard to school my features to not react. This was the first time she had said my name in over a year. Not since I let my anger towards Potter and his band of idiots get the better of me.

"Ah yes," Slughorn said. "As professor for this class, Mr. Snape will be making a potion alongside the class to demonstrate technique. If his potion surpasses my own, I will of course honor the reward."

Lily gave me a quick glance before turning her focus to the blackboard behind me. I longed to say something to her, but this was neither the time nor the place.

I had a class to teach.

"Take out your books and turn to page 394," I ordered. "As you can see, the author has laid out instructions for producing a rudimentary version of the Draught of Living Death. As I explained earlier, I find crushing the sopophorous beans more efficient than cutting them."

"But if you'd rather follow the instructions as written," Professor Slughorn interrupted, "that's just as good. That's the method I will be using. After all, they wouldn't let someone just write a textbook if they had no idea what they were doing."

I tried hard to ignore the snorts and chuckles coming from Potter and merry band of morons in the back of the class. Barely suppressing a scowl, I said, "Perhaps you should just teach this lesson."

Slughorn shook his head. "No, no. I am quite content here. Continue."

I turned to the blackboard and began to copy diagrams from the text. Once I had completed the drawing, I turned back the class and commanded, "Begin."

I felt a small thrill as even Potter and his cronies followed my order. One by one, each student lit a fire under their cauldron and adjusted the flame to the appropriate level.

It pleased me to see that Black's flame was far too high and would inevitably result in a scorched potion. I wondered if my temporary professorship gave me the ability to give him detention.

That thought was wiped from my mind as I caught Lily's eyes. I set my own cauldron to heat before I walked over to her station.

"How are you doing with the potion?" I asked.

"It's fine, Severus," Lily said and turned her focus back to task at hand. She added the various ingredients and began to stir her potion.

I watched as she slowly stirred her potion seven times in the anti-clockwise direction as the text ordered. When she added an extra clockwise stir, I halted her.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Yes, Ms. Evans," Slughorn chimed in. "That was not in the instructions."

"Adding one anti-clockwise stir should create a brief vortex in the cauldron and allow for better incorporation of the sopophorous bean juice, which as Severus pointed out earlier, is the primary active ingredient."

Slughorn gave Lily a huge smile and I had to squash one of my own. "It appears we have two renegade potioneers in our midst," he said.

When Lily returned her focus to her textbook, I walked back to the head table and quickly assembled my potion. I added the extra clockwise stir before letting my potion sit and brew. When I observed how quickly the potion obtained a clear color, I knew that Lily's theory was correct and added the annotation to my text.

I spent the remainder of the class walking around, observing the students.

Slughorn had produced a brew that was textbook perfect, but still lacking. The potion was clear but had a strange pearlescent swirl on the surface.

I noted that several other students had achieved similar results. To my dismay, I saw that Potter's potion was adequate. But I was not at all surprised to see that Black's potion was looked more like curdled milk than the Draught of Living Death.

Calling the class to order, I said, "Stop working. Each of you will bring your potion to the front table where Professor Slughorn will assist me in deciding who produced the best potion."

Slughorn pulled a student's chair around and sat down. He placed a leaf in his potion and I observed the edges of the leaf quickly curl into a tight ball.

"Let's start with Mr. Potter and Mr. Black," he said.

When their potions were placed on the desk, Slughorn added a single leaf to the potion. The leaf in Potter's potion began to slowly curl into itself. The leaf in Black's potion ballooned up like a puffskein.

"Well done, Mr. Potter, but your potion does not exceed my own."

I watched Potter grin and shrug it off. ' _Cocky arsehole,_ ' I thought.

"I don't think I even need to critique your potion, do I Mr. Black?" Slughorn asked rhetorically. When Black laughed, Slughorn said, "I thought not," and quickly vanished the disgusting attempt.

One by one, the students came to the desk and we tested their potions. Some were mediocre, bordering on good. Some were abysmal. And one made Black's potion look like it was prepared by a world class potioneer. I scowled thinking that Slughorn should be much more selective about who he allowed to take N.E.W.T. level potions.

Soon, only two potions remained: mine and Lily's. When she placed her potion beside mine on the front table, Slughorn again added the leaves.

The leaf in my potion shriveled instantaneously. I couldn't fight the flush of pride I felt at my success and turned to smile at Slughorn.

However, the smile slid off my face when I discovered he was not looking at me. Instead, he was transfixed by Lily's potion.

The leaf in her potion was dissolving into nothingness in her perfectly clear potion.

"Merlin's beard," Slughorn whispered, mirroring my own thoughts. "'Tis perfect. Ten points to Gryffindor, Ms. Evans!" he exclaimed. "And a butterbeer in Hogsmeade with me as promised."

As Slughorn dismissed the class, I asked Lily, "How did you do that?"

"You were right that sopophorous beans are the active ingredient in this potion. But the sopophorous beans we have in the potions storeroom are undersized compared to the ones I've seen in Herbology. I crushed an extra bean for its juice to compensate."

"That was bril-" I began.

"Are you coming, Lily?" called Potter from the doorway.

She rushed away without sparing me another glance.

I slowly gathered the potion making supplies I had abandoned at my normal desk.

"That was some good work today, Mr. Snape."

"Thank you, Professor Slughorn."

"Have you ever considered becoming a Potion's Master? Perhaps teaching at Hogwarts yourself? I'll be retiring after the next school term and would love the opportunity to train up my successor."

I made a quick annotation in my text - 13 beans instead of 12 - before replying. "I would enjoy discussing that with you at another time. Thank you, Professor."

"No. Thank you, Professor," Slughorn said.

I smiled as I left the classroom.


End file.
